I'm surprised I finished this--it's an introspective novel, of the type that usually gets boring listening to another person's thoughts, but there's enough going on in Horace's life that I become curious about how he became such a loner.
Horace is so careful with his use of words that his use of "autism" nags at me--could there be a previous definition, preferrably used by ancient Greeks or Romans? Not that I can find. Is this a subtle hint that Horace is a high-functioning autistic? He has a number of idiosyncratic characteristics: he's a loner, with no clue as to human motivations, has a vast store of memorized texts, often in the original Latin, and a hatred of internal combustion engines. But if he's being scripted as someone with Aspberger's, why isn't this used as a marketing ploy, given the current interest in autism? Perhaps because Reuss is not autistic, so the musings are only his imagination of how an autistic person would think...or perhaps because his point eventually is that Horace is as normal as any of us.
All of these ramblings ignore the subplot of a young punk's interest in Horace and the fate of the rape victim Horace aids (p. 30).
The jacket blurb calls the novel "brilliantly comic". The brilliant part is likely true, but the comedy is fairly subtle. For example, when the archaeologists are hampered in their dig because the site is a "grackle nesting ground" (p. 244) I'm not sure if the sheriff is being his usual asinine self or if the author is expecting us to know this is ridiculous. Or when Horace ponders over what to name his crow (234) while the neighbor kid bids it goodbye "Dracula" (p. 241).
There is quite a lot of alcohol consumed, which may explain the obsessive thoughts that go no where. Happily there are jumps of several months at some chapters, so the reader can get to the action without ploughing thru too many internal monologues.
This would be an excellent book for anyone of a philosophical bent, who attempts to find meaning in life and has an appreciation for the ancient philosophers. It would also be a good book for anyone who thinks life is absurd. ( )